Acoustic Sundays marks 11th anniversary at JohnMartin’s

Eleven years ago, the late John Brown, a folk singer who moved to Miami from Chicago, was invited by John Clarke and Martin Lynch to bring his Open Mic format to JohnMartin’s. Since then, Acoustic Sundays at John Martin’s (AS@JM’s), as the weekly shows have become known, have evolved into a favorite performance venue for a wide variety of folk and acoustic musicians.

After Brown’s death in October 2011, audio engineer and folk music fan David Cohen, who had been assisting Brown, became Acoustic Sundays’ organizer and promoter. An audio engineer by training, Cohen not only runs the sound system and organizes each Sunday evening’s program, but maintains Acoustic Sundays’ Facebook page and weekly email contact with AS@JM’s community of performers and fans.

Any given Sunday night, beginning at 7:30 p.m., may feature sets by veteran Coconut Grove performers or moonlighting musicians who are doctors, attorneys, judges and advertising executives during the week and play in one or more outstanding rock bands on weekends, and cultivating talented young performers. AS@JM’s reputation goes well beyond South Florida. Musical performers visiting from California, Texas, and Nashville make a point of being at AS@JM’s when they are in South Florida to play, and sometimes just to listen.

Among the AS@JM regulars who planned to play on the night of the Anniversary Show are Phil Allen, Burt Burton, Chuck Ellis, Bob Ingram, Bill Kunz, Gray Lily, Jim Mason, Bryan Norfolk, Zip Robertson, Eric Wagner and Andy Waks.

There’s never an admission or cover charge for AS@JM’s evenings of top quality live entertainment.